hidden messages and meanings: the case of the infant witness testifies to yūsuf's innocence

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Hidden Messages and Meanings: The Case of The Infant Witness Testifies to Yūsuf's InnocenceAuthor(s): Elizabeth S. EttinghausenSource: Ars Orientalis, Vol. 29 (1999), pp. 141-145Published by: Freer Gallery of Art, The Smithsonian Institution and Department of the Historyof Art, University of MichiganStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4629552 .

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ELIZABETH S. ETTINGHAUSEN BRIEF COMMENT

Hidden Messages and Meanings:

The Case of The Infant Witness

Testifies to Yiisuf's Innocence

ABSTRACT

This miniature depicts the handsome and saintly slave Yiusuf being accused by the 'aziz, Egypt's grand vizier, of having seduced his wife Zulaykha. As the guards are about to lead Yuisuf off to prison, a baby in its mother's arms to the left of the 'aziz pro- claims the slave's innocence. The following reversal of innocent and gufilty players is expressed by their turn to their right or their left, respectively. Those who had assumed Yiisuf's guilt until the baby revealed the truth turn their bodies to their right but their heads to their left, while those truthful from the outset, like Yuisuf and the baby, face entirely to their right. Each figure's role is also indicated by its location, movement, and expression. Such remark- able psychological insight jibes perfectly with the hidden signature of Shaykh-Muhammad as the painter.

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Ars Orientalis, volumne XXIX (1999)



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ELIZABETH S. ETTINGHAUSEN

Hidden Messages and Meanings:

The Case of The Infant Witness

Testifies to Yasuf's Innocence

A S I READ Marianna Shreve Simpson's ad- mirable publication of Sultan Ibrahim Mirza's Haft awrang manuscript in the Freer

Gallery of Art, the miniature of fol. 120a (fig. 1) from Jami's story of Yrusf u Zulaykhii seemed to me of special interest and worthy of a more detailed analy- sis.' This small jewel of a painting depicts the scene of the beautiful young Yiisuf being accused by the 'aziz, the title of Egypt's grand vizier, of having seduced his wife Zulaykha. Actually, as we find out else- where in the story, it was she who, after having tried unsuccessfully to seduce Yuisuf, blamed him for this crime while insisting upon her own innocence. As a result of the accusations against him, Yiisuf-represented as an angelic-looking young gentleman now reduced to slavery-is about to be led away by two guards. Thejuxtaposition of the innocent and saintly- appearing slave Yiisuf to one side in front of the central ivian and the forbidding-looking 'aziz near the other side clearly defines the role of two of the main players in this drama.

To Yiisufs right are the guards who, following the orders of the 'aziz, believe that they are acting cor- rectly by laying hands on Yiisufin order to deliver him to prison. Yet these guards, whose bodies face toward their right, appear to stop in their tracks, turning their heads in the other direction, toward the baby pro- nouncing YiisufPs innocence.2 In the story YiisufPs innocence is also proven by his shirt, ripped in the back

FIG. 1.

The Infant Witness Testifies to YiisufPs Innocence, from the Haft awrang of?frmi. Courtesy Freer Gallery ofArt, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 46.12,fol. 120a.

as a result of his escape from the grp of his female at- tacker. The heads of the guards arresting Yisuf, in contrast to their bodies, are directed to their left be- cause their role has suddenly changed from that of administeringjustice to that of committing a wrongful act-namely, seizing Yiisuf, who is now proven to be blameless. The guards' supreme commander, the large and impressive-looking 'aziz, convinced ofthe accusa- tion's veracity, is turned to his right. But the situation is completely reversed by the utterances of the tiny baby in the arms of his mother, who is followed by a female attendant. This reversal is also reflected in the 'aziz's facial expression, in which bewilderment and embarrassment seem to mingle with a rising rage. The juxtaposition of the large 'aziz avowing what turns out to be a lie and the small baby proclaiming the truth is rendered very effectively. This difference is visualized through the painter's use of the left-right dichotomy: while the 'aziz's head, in contrast to his body, is turned toward the baby to his left, that of the baby and his entourage face toward Yiisuf and thus to their right. Moreover, the imperious-looking 'aziz is contrasted to the tiny baby, indicating that big and weighty do not have to be synonymous with right.

Also present are such secondary players as the standard bearer in the center front, whose stance is related to that of the guard arresting Yuisuf and whose social status, like that ofboth guards, is indicated by his small size and simple turban. The lead guard wears simi- lar headgear, which contrasts sharply with the attire including turbans-of the gentleman class represented by Yuisuf, the 'aziz (with whom the standard bearer is also aligned), and two figures in the foreground.

The two male figures to the right appear to be not active participants but rather observers or perhaps

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ELIZABETH S. ETTINGHAUSEN

commentators on the dramatic event. The one near the right picture frame is turned to his right, expressing his astonishment with his right index finger at his mouth, while the other, tugging at the former's sleeve and turning to his left, seems dubious about the turn of events. Actually, in these two figures the whole leftward- and rightward-turning drama seems sum- marized. It becomes clear that all figures who pro- claim the truth or believe in it are turned entirely or partially toward their right-Yiisuf, the baby, and others-whereas all those proclaiming or believing in what turns out to be untrue face toward their left- the 'aziz and the guards.

Two women are partially visible in the two win- dows to either side of the central ivan. The one on the right with her head turned toward her right, her surprise indicated by her right index finger at her mouth, echoes the onlooker in front. On the other hand, the female figure at the left window looking down toward her left with her eyes fixed on Yiisuf and her left hand over her mouth appears to have her left thumb in her mouth, as if inadvertently biting it. As a visual admission of wrongdoing, this gesture might refer to the Qur'an 25.25, which reads (albeit in connection with the Day ofJudgment), "the evil doer shall bite his hands." Moreover, this gesture could also allude to an episode further on in the story in which Zulaykha's lady guests, overwhelmed by Yiisuf's beauty, cut their fingers with the knives meant for peeling the fruit in their hands. Thus, this scene at the window seems a drastic expression of this woman's feelings of guilt and anxiety as well as her consuming lovesickness. In contrast to the thumb in the mouth of this onlooker, the gesture of the rest of her hand in front of her mouth might well indicate her utter consternation over the sudden turn of events below. The turn of this woman's head toward her left and her conspicuous use of her left hand suggest that this is a person in the wrong. Thus, it seems reasonable to assume that it is indeed Zulaykha who is represented here, as Shreve Simpson has tenta- tively proposed.3 Naturally, Zulaykha would be em- barrassed and distraught that the falseness of her tes- timony had been uncovered.

The whole scene is built up around its three main

players-Yiisuf, Zulaykha, and the 'aziz-with each of them positioned in the corner of a triangle. The pivotal role, however, falls to Yuisuf (with the halo of a saintly person), who as the fulcrum of events occu- pies the bottom angle, indicating the initial precari- ousness of his position and the volatility of the situation, with Zulaykha and the 'aziz in the balance. By depicting the bodies and heads of the players in this drama turned appropriately leftward or rightward, the painter has not only ingeniously conveyed one significant moment of the story; he has also unfurled a whole sequence of events, even alluding to other features and incidents not directly represented in this miniature. Instead of being rendered in conventional narrative form, the most dramatic moment in the highly emotional story of Yiusuf and Zulaykha is pre- sented as a tableau but at the same time alludes to a broader spectrum of events, expressed in the turn of body or head, in gestures, and in facial expressions- mainly the special rendition of the eyebrows and the particular depiction of the eyes, as in the case of the 'aziz and the arresting guard. The mise-en-scene is accomplished masterfully in both the relation of the figures to each other and their placement within the architectural setting and, further in the background, within nature. Although echoed in the setting, it is the bold or subtle expressions of the human figures that mainly create the feeling of high drama and re- veal the psychological and emotional state of the players as an important undercurrent of a highly devel- oped pictorial language.

In a searching article Shreve Simpson has re- cently argued that Shaykh-Muhammad may have painted this folio.4 According to Martin Dickson and Cary Welch, early accounts repeatedly mention Shaykh-Muliammad's reputation for fine portrai- ture,5 which might very well imply the kinds of psychological undertones, emotionally expressive ren- ditions, and dramatically charged atmosphere that I am suggesting are characteristic of this miniature.6 Thus an attribution to Shaykh-Mulbammad, indicated by the almost hidden signature of the artist,' is confirmed by the quality of the painting in The In- fant Witness Testifies to Yrsufs Innocence. O

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HIDDEN MESSAGES AND MEANINGS

Notes

1. For a color reproduction of this miniature and Shreve Simpson's discussion of it see Marianna Shreve Simpson, with contributions by Massumeh Farhad, Sultan Ibrahim Mirza's "Haft awrang". A Princely Manuscriptfrom Sixteenth-Century Iran (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1997), 138-41.

2. The fact that the baby can speak, expressing itself well and truthfully and thus fidfilling a mission, is reminiscent of the pas- sages in the Quri'n (19.29-34) about the babyJesus speaking for himself. I am grateful toJ. Christoph Biirgel for drawing my attention to this parallel.

3. See Simpson, Haft awrang, 140.

4. Marianna Shreve Simpson, "Discovering Shaykh-Mu4ammad in the FreerJami," Ars Orientalis 28 (1998): 105-14.

5. See Martin Bernard Dickson and Stuart Cary Welch, The Houghton Shahnameh, 2 vols. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981), esp. 1:165-77 and 251ff. nn. 1-16.

6. These features can also be found in the single miniature, The Camel and Its Keeper in the Freer Gallery ofArt, which is signed and dated by Shaykh-Mu4ammad. For a discussion ofthis painting see especially Simpson, "Discovering Shaykh-Mu4ammad," 112, fig. 5; and Dickson and Welch, Houghton Shahnameh, 1:168.

7. Simpson, "Discovering Shaykh-Mu4ammad," 109f. The signature was first discovered by Priscilla Soucek.

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hidden messages and meanings: the case of the infant witness testifies to yūsuf's innocence

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